Polemos stood on what remained of an Elite grade Giant Centipede, as he was breathing very heavily. Blood ran down his arms, his tunic was torn as blood also flowed out his chest. As Polemos tried to stand straight as he gripped his axe and harpoon in his hands and looked up around him to see the carnage he wrought upon the Giant Centipedes. There were about 50-60 of them all around the nest, Polemos really was glad that he was able to finish off the rest of them as he actually bit off more than he could near the end.
He was almost completely surrounded by eight of them plus the Elite he was currently standing on.
"Damn I really need to remember what Elder Spear said about never underestimating your opponent because that really did almost cost me." Polemos heaved as he remembered all of those close calls when he was almost stabbed by multiple forcipules.
"Well at least they're all dead and had a great warm up before, I head over to the lizard nest then. Should I burn their bodies? Yeah I definitely should so I don't attract other monsters or beasts over." Polemos shook his head as he put both his bloodied axe and harpoon away and then started a long process of gathering a lot of venom and then taking the mandible from the Elite grade Giant Centipede. Then Polemos proceeded to drag the dead centipedes as close as he could to one another then set them all a flame.
Their burning carcasses made for a beautiful shadow that stretched across the forest of rocks as the first moon was starting to crown.
"Whew, glad I didn't take their meat as that is one horrid smell, hopefully that was all of them. Now I should head back to my tent for the rest of the day, as I need to patch myself up and also clean myself and my weapons too." Polemos was smiling in the end as the fierce fighting actually allowed Polemos to feel that he was getting stronger, as it did look like all his body needed was actual battle experience.
When Polemos finally reached where his tent was he had already taken off his tunic to reveal his upper body that had a few scratches on it, then went to the small water source to clean his wounds, apply medicine, and then wrap himself in a clean bandage. Then after cleaning himself off he cleaned his equipment as he didn't want the blood to affect his weapons. When he was done with that he went to his tent to eat, read, and then rest his tired body.
But before Polemos was able to lay himself upon his bed he heard an ear piercing screech from where the centipede nest was at, then he felt the ground beneath his feet start to shake.
"What the hell, how did I miss one or was this one away when I killed them?"
Polemos was a little confused but that didn't stop him from equipping his belt that had his axe and harpoon, as he rushed out of his tent to see what was heading toward his direction. When Polemos saw a massive cloud of dust and sand he furrowed his brows and had a small frown on his tired face.
"That is definitely bigger than the Elite Giant Centipede as he was what, 24-25 meters in length but was still 3 meters tall. How big is this one then?" Polemos pondered as the cloud of dust and sand got closer and closer until he was able to see a massive 4.5 meter tall centipede that was about 28-30 meters in length.
"Who in God's name did I provoke to have this beast sent to me. Well I better just take care of it. Wait, maybe I could tame it, Carl's journal did have a small part saying one was able to tame monsters but needed to show one's strength was stronger than the monster or beast. Yeah let's try that out, it will definitely be a lot harder to subdue than to kill but hey, gotta try some time right." Polemos chuckled and smiled as the Elite grade Giant Centipede got within 75 meters of him as it stopped.
The Elite grade Giant Centipede stared at the human who killed off her entire nest and was furious when the puny human came out to challenge it with a smile on his face. It then lifted the front half of its body as it roared into the night sky as it charged towards the human reaching him very quickly as it tried to grab him with her forceps.
Polemos was able to move out of the way when the Giant Centipede tried to grab him with her forceps, as he threw out a fireball spell that completely missed its target. Polemos withdrew his harpoon as he held it in his left hand and provoked the Giant Centipede.
"Hey you missed but hey, so did I. I mean, am I that hard to hit, I mean come on my blind grandmother would have hit me, but you, you completely missed." Polemos grinned and laughed as he was able to get the attention of the Giant Centipede.
The centipede did the same tactic again but when she tried to grab Polemos with her forceps, she also shot acid out of her mouth.
Polemos' eyes went wide with shock as he was barely able to dodge as he looked at the hole about the size of a large sized washbasin, and hissed.
"Siiiii, well that definitely wasn't in the damn notebook, must be a different variation or an evolved centipede, even better if I'm able to tame or make it my mount, otherwise it'll be a fun late night hunt."
Polemos grinned as he continued to battle the Giant Centipede all the way until both moons were high in the sky shining a beautiful silver light across the destruction that both the Elite Giant Centipede and Polemos caused.
Polemos was finally able to calm and tame the Giant Centipede after he was able to sit atop her head as he wrapped his harpoon around her head and held on for dear life.
Polemos was beaten, bruised, and even bloody but he had a very massive grin on his face when he was able to tame the Elite grade Giant Centipede.
"Finally able to calm yourself down huh, well that's a good thing isn't it now. Well I should give you a name but i can't tell if you're a male or female, well let's take a look then." Polemos looked behind himself as he was looking at the back legs of the centipede and noticed that it was a female.
"So you're a female then shit, sorry about your nest there, I was only increasing my strength, same as you but you did lose in the end. So how about that name then….how about, Rose." Polemos suggested to the Giant Centipede but couldn't tell if she agreed or not.
Polemos just shrugged his shoulders as he slid off the head of the centipede and headed to his tent to finally get some much needed rest.
Rose followed him to his tent but couldn't enter as she was definitely bigger than the tent. When Polemos saw that he chuckled a little then thought he should make a big fire to help keep her warm as the night was getting pretty cold.
As Polemos made the fire close to his tent Rose wrapped her long body around his tent and fire to keep warm and plopped herself onto the sand. She made a small noise that sounded like she was happy but, at the same time frustrated as she lost to the small and puny human.
Polemos just chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head and headed towards his tent but stopped at the entrance and as he spoke to Rose with a calm voice, before heading inside to sleep.
"I can understand that you are frustrated with losing to me as I would too actually, but trust me when I say this, it'll be a good thing. As there will definitely be many interesting and amazing experiences along our journey. When we wake in the morning we will be heading to an Elite monster nest, and you'll even be able to eat some of the flesh and blood from some of my enemies and those lizards."
Polemos wasn't able to see that Rose raised her head and looked at the back of Polemos as a light shone in her eyes then rested her head to fall asleep.
When Polemos woke up the next day and headed out of his tent to get some breakfast he noticed that Rose wasn't around and was wondering where she went until he saw her emerge from the water source and crawl back to the shore.
"So that's where you were, you scared me for a moment and it looks like you were able to make a full recovery also. I still need a little rest but that won't stop me from reaching that nest today. Hey Rose, let me catch us some breakfast, then I'll clean up camp and then will head to that Elite lizard nest." Polemos spoke to Rose as her only response was to tilt her head to the side.